In early 2013, a couple of months after we got married, Ben and I each made a list of "100 Dreams." This list was meant to be a chance to sit down and think about 100 things that we hoped to experience, achieve, understand, do etc. in our lives. Obviously I put Ben up to this, but in typical Ben fashion, once we started working on it he was totally into it.

We'd both forgotten about these lists until last weekend when we were "tidying" (using the Konmari Method) and came across them; of course I made Ben stop and read through them with me, and it was pretty wild to read what had happened (and changed) in just 5 years.

Amazingly, we've already experienced/done a lot of the items on our lists. For instance, we both had things like, "buy a house," "have kids," "have a yard," "get a dog" (sigh) on our lists. Ben had "get a truck," "coach a basketball team" and "have a fireplace" on his list (lol) and I had "own my own business," "do reverse koundinyasana" (lol), "create a greeting card line," and "lead a yoga retreat" on mine.

I also had some "dreams" that made me kind of sad to look back on, but simultaneously reminded me of how far I've come in just 5 years--especially when it comes to my relationship with my body. I'd written, "stop worrying/thinking about my weight" and "eat ice cream without judging myself" on the list. Really, I still felt like that just 5 years ago? It was shocking for me to see, especially since I don't think much about my weight at all anymore and because ice cream has become such a normal (non-judgmental) part of my life since moving to the Cape (haha but truly).

Some of the things that were dreams for us at the time have already changed, too. Ben had quite a few CrossFit-related dreams on his list (he was super into it and competing back then) and I had some dreams related to owning my own yoga studio someday (no longer something I would want to do!).

There were also the dreams that are still so far away from becoming a reality: "have a live-in chef" (HAHAHA!), "always get lots of sleep" (for real: HAHAHA), and "do a pull-up" (why is this SO hard for me?).

And then we can't forget about the ridiculous dreams, many of which made both of us laugh when looking back:

Ben: "Have better facial hair, have tons of fitness apparel, get lots of sun each day."

Me: "Have no more cavities (I'd just gotten my first one and was devastated!), "sing a song on stage" (which made my list twice...??? Dying.), "see every movie nominated for Best Picture every year from now on" (I see like 1 movie per year these days).

As tickled as we were reading these lists, I have to say that coming across them was a really great reminder of the power of setting goals (or writing down your "dreams") and then slowly working towards them. The fact that both of us have already experienced/are close to experiencing almost half of the dreams that we'd written down just 5 years ago is pretty incredible!

[It also speaks to how achievable some of our "dreams" were, but I think it's important to have attainable dreams as well as lofty ones--like singing on stage.]

So, my challenge to you? Make a list of 100 dreams for your life. Or 50! Or even just 20! Date it, tuck it away, and see what happens by the time you come across it again...

In the meantime, I'll be over here working with my vocal coach to get ready for my big debut (BAHAHA)...

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